The term “strategic dialogue” in referring to talks between Israel and the United States is linked in people’s minds to issues such as the Iranian nuclear program, ensuring Israel’s military superiority, the geopolitics of the Middle East and military intelligence cooperation between the two sides. The strategic dialogue launched this week in Washington by two high-ranking delegations is unusual in the defense-security context, described as a “strategic high-level dialogue on technology."

As strange as it may sound, the technological cooperation between these two longtime and deeply engaged allies has been found lacking. Israel does not have a foothold in the giant US labs with their cutting-edge work on quantum computing, artificial intelligence and many other sensitive innovative fields.

While an estimated 60% of Israeli scientists cooperate with their European counterparts within the framework of various programs, the rate of Israeli-US cooperation is far smaller. In fact, on technological matters, the distance between the United States and Israel is as great as the ocean that divides them. The new dialogue is intended to bridge that gap, as pledged by President Joe Biden on his historic July visit to Israel.

The Israeli side of the talks is being led by Minister of Innovation, Science, Technology and Space Orit Farkash-Hacohen and national security adviser Eyal Hulata. It includes senior justice and energy ministry officials and representatives of cyber and high-tech industries. Its task is to bring down the walls preventing Israeli and US cooperation, especially in quantum computing, AI, climate change, food-tech, clean-tech and pandemic control. “The Biden administration has decided to invest vast sums in these fields and to lead the US to a new era. For Israel, a foothold in this journey is an important step. And for this to happen, we have to start working with the Americans,” one of the Israeli delegation leaders told Al-Monitor.